Southside Johnny.com: John's Jive

August 1, 2005

Greetings, fellow sufferers. I have been rather bluntly advised by our illustrious thrumpeter, Chris Anderson, that it is looooong past time to take down the Xmas decorations...and jive. Hohoho, Chris. You are so festive...and fired.

There is much to impart in this latest edition of the ruminations of the Old Bastard. A new Jukes CD, some personnel shifts, new adventures for many and the same old sh*t for yours truly. Not really. I am as contented as a clam at low tide.

We are in the final mixing stages of the new Jukes CD. For the nonce, I am calling it "Into the Harbour" but for no other reason than I just can't think of anything else. Any ideas out there? There a number of covers and some new tunes. Some fast, some slow. Some happy, some sad. Some in tune, some not. You know; the usual crap. I hope to have it available by the end of summer. This summer. No, I do, really. Oh shut up. Whadayou know?

Those of you unfor...I mean fortunate enough to have attended our latest debacle at the fabulous Mohegan Sun Casino and Pawn will have noticed a few different faces on the stage. The ineffable Jeff Kazee and the inevitable Bobby Bandiera have been asked by the insolvent Jon Bon Jovi to join his little band's latest tour. I guess the kids need some experienced road dogs to show them the ropes. Have no fear, my peoples; they will be back. I still owe them six weeks pay, and they know they ain't getting it til I get to torture them juuuust a little more. But we are blessed(?) to have the sunny smile and able fingers of an old friend of mine, Ricky Byrd, on guitar and vocals. I met him when he was playing for Joan Jett. He must have been 16 years old, and as full of piss and wind as the barber's cat. He's a great guy, a real talent and a terrific song writer that I hope to collaborate with in the future. He will be playing the shows that Bobby can't make. Hopefully, Bobby will use this time away from the Jukes to work up some NEW JOKES!!!! Godammit.

On Keyboards in Connecticut was an original Juke I'm sure many of you recognized, Mr. Kevin Kavanaugh. He is an old stalwart and as always, a joy to play with. We will be seeing more of him in the future also. There will be some other folks coming and going over the next few months, but at least I will still be there for every *%^&ing show. Oh, shut up.

Also relatively new is our tromboniste, whose name is either Neal Pawley, or Paul Neely. He keeps telling us something different. He's also from England, so I suspect he has a checkered past that he's hiding from. Well, who doesn't? No, Ed I know you don't. All right already, Kingfish, I'll put in that you don't. Just put down the straight razor, OK?

As ever, Le Jukes will be playing all over da place this summer and fall. We will be on the West Coast in Sept, England and Europe after that, Martell's, Hampton Beach, God, just everywhere. Michelle will fill in the dates at the end of this drivel, as nobody tells me nuttin'.

Other news: Ricardo "La Bamba" Rozenboig and I are working on a big band CD. I don't know how many horns were actually at the first recording session but it was a frightening sight. I pray I will be able to hold my horror in check until the record is finished. Oh, my poor bedeviled soul. What have I ever done to deserve this? Don't answer that! There are also plans for an acoustic album and tour, but when that will be, like, I dunno.

Well, victims, that's about it. I'm sorry it took so long to get this to ya, but the TV Channel has been playing a lot of reruns of Mr. Ed, and every time I'd sit down to write, I'd hear "Ohhhh Willlllber!" and...

Try to be nice to each other.

I won't.

Southside

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